A Presentation by Elizabeth Brownlow

Childhood Born in 1813 in Edenton, NC, known as “Hatty” Parents Delilah Horniblow, and Elijah Jacobs were owned by two different families First experience with slavery at age 4, when uncle Joseph (Benjamin) was sold Delilah died when Harriet was 6 Went to live with her mother’s owner & mistress, Margaret Horniblow, until Margaret’s death in 1825

Slavery Harriet bequeathed to Margaret’s niece, Mary Matilda, daughter of Dr. James Norcom (Dr. Flint) At age 11, Harriet moves in with the Norcoms (Flints) Upon Dr. Norcom forbidding her marriage, Harriet enters into a liaison with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer Harriet gives birth to son, Joseph Harriet moves into her grandmother’s home and gives birth to daughter, Louisa Matilda

1835- Upon being sexually rejected again, Dr. Norcom banishes Harriet to his son’s plantation, prompting Harriet to plot her escape (for the sake of her children) Harriet goes into hiding, first in a friend’s home, and then in her grandmother’s home, for almost 7 years total Harriet boards a boat bound for Philadelphia, then a train to New York One year later, Harriet lives in Boston and works as nursemaid for Nathaniel Parker Willis (Mr. Bruce) Worked in the Anti- Slavery Office and Reading Room in Rochester, NY, where she met many abolitionists (including Frederick Douglass) Mrs. Cornelia Willis (Mrs. Bruce) arranges for the purchase and freedom of Harriet Fugitive Slave Law is passed

1861- Self-publishes Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl under the pseudonym Linda Brent April 12, Confederate soldiers fire on Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War. 1860’s- Nursed, taught, and aided black troops and freedmen along with Louisa Matilda in Washington D.C., Savannah GA, and Edenton (hometown) Ran a boarding house in Cambridge, Mass. Participated in meetings of the National Association of Colored Women in Washington D.C. Passed March 7, 1897 in Washington D.C. Buried next to her brother, John, in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge

Began writing Incidents in 1853 Attempts to publish in the UK failed initially Lydia Maria Child of the Antislavery Office finally agreed to help her Authorship since questioned due to pseudonym of author and characters “Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl.” Online image Documenting the American South. University of North Carolina. 21 Sep

Harcourt Brace edition 1973Harvard UP Edition 1987 Differences: Portrait vs. illustration Pseudonym

Lydia Marie Child argued to be the author of Incidents Jean Fagan Yellin published Harvard ed. in Yellin located Harriet Jacobs by letters and by using the book as a guide, finding the people and places mentioned in it, despite their pseudonyms

Signet Classics Edition 1999 Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral 1773

“ She is the only woman I know of who was held in slavery, who was a fugitive both in the South and in the North, an antislavery activist who wrote and published her life story and then, during the Civil War, went back south to work with the black refugees behind the Union lines and report what she saw in the northern press” (Yellin XV)

Casmier-Paz, Lynn A. “Slave Narratives and the Rhetoric of Author Portraiture.” New Literary History, 34.1 (2003) Harriet Jacobs. Historic Edenton State Historic Site. n.d. Web. 17 Sep Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life: The Remarkable Adventures of the Woman Who Wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Basic Civitas Books, Print.